The present application relates generally to additive manufacturing, and more particularly, to a system and process for the recovery and reuse of a carrier gas used during additive manufacturing.
Additive manufacturing is a process whereby layers of material are added to an article to either form or repair the article. Additive manufacturing allows complex design features to be incorporated into parts where those complex design features had proved infeasible using conventional manufacturing techniques. Additive manufacturing may involve thermally bonding material together or mechanically bonding material together. Cold spray manufacturing involves mechanically bonding a particle to an article. During cold spray manufacturing a stream of carrier gas is accelerated to supersonic velocities and a particulate is added to the carrier gas stream. Helium is the preferred carrier gas for cold spray manufacturing because higher-quality parts can be manufactured with a helium gas stream than with other gases. The carrier gas stream is impinged upon the article, thereby causing the particulate matter to bond to the article due to the kinetic energy of the particulate matter. The carrier gas is generally vented to the atmosphere after impinging against the article. As such, a large volume of helium is typically utilized during a cold spray process, thereby contributing a large portion of the costs associated with cold spray manufacturing, as helium is a non-renewable resource.